


Needle's Eye

by dendraica



Series: Stitches [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Weirdmageddon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 11:20:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6608734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dendraica/pseuds/dendraica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of 'By a Thread', Robbie has a dangerous encounter that leads to a welcome reunion. As the denizens of Gravity Falls - both magical and mundane - struggle to survive, Robbie must help send Bill back to his world, in whatever way he can.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Needle's Eye

The wrong color of sunlight dazzled Robbie's eyes through a branch, making him turn his head away. He blinked several times, attempting to clear his vision.

"Kind of a nice change, huh?" Wendy asked, coming up behind him. 

Robbie didn't answer save for a nod, but she was right. After a week of living in a dark, stale bunker, the forest air was refreshing. There had been little enough activity above them that it seemed safe to finally to emerge into the daylight. Relatively safe, anyway. 

There were still abnormalities in the sky and if Robbie were to look to the East, Bill's black pyramid hovered beside the Rift. He didn't look however, even as more shapes slipped out of the gape between their dimensions. After all that happened, to him and his parents, the mere thought of Bill was enough to tie his stomach into a tense knot.

The magnitude of his loss seemed like it had yet to hit; he'd only had one small crying jag in the whole time they'd been hiding out in the bunker. Nobody seemed to have heard him sobbing, fortunately. He had tried his best to keep quiet.

What had broken him was a replayed memory of Bill being kind; running black fingers through his hair as the demon hummed in several different pitches at once. Robbie couldn't understand why at first. He eventually realized - in an awful way, he had felt closer to Bill than his own parents. That had likely been what the demon planned from the start.

Robbie hadn't told anyone else but Wendy the full story yet, but they must have figured something out, because he hadn't been pressed for details. In fact, the others in their group had shown the opposite of judgement. Maybe they figured he had lost enough?

Either way, it was necessity that had forced them out of their hiding spot today. Soos' eternal pizza and the bunker's canned meat would provide carbs and protein for a time, but they needed other nutrients. 

Wendy and Fiddleford both knew how to live off the land, and it was the tail end of summer - meaning berries, greens, mushrooms, and possibly apples if they were lucky. His friend was hoping to find morels in the burnt parts of the forest, and she knew well how to avoid poisonous fungi, like destroying angel. Fiddleford had chosen to look for wild serviceberries, cherries and blackberries.

Which left the greens to Robbie. He wasn't experienced, but he'd had no problem coming along to help when asked. Wendy had shown him mallow, an easily identifiable weed to start with. They agreed to meet within a half hour, or to head back at the first sign of trouble.

Robbie watched the both of them leave and started to walk alongside a broken fence, searching for the mallow plants. 

He bent down over a patch of low-growing greenery, with leaves that looked like tiny crumpled lily pads. Robbie rolled a leaf around in his mouth just to be sure, ate it, then started pulling stems carefully. He had a plastic bag to put the leaves in and a bottle of cool water to keep them fresh until he got back. 

Everything on this plant was edible; the mallow peas looked like tiny cheese wheels and were very good to snack on. Being this late in the summer, there were plenty of them clustered along the stems. Robbie felt rather good about his first successful find. He was confident he could find even more if he went a bit further. 

He followed the broken fence line, careful to listen for any noise that would indicate he needed to run. Robbie did eventually hear a sound, though one that inspired curiosity more than fear. 

Squealing and jangling down the slope that the posts and wire followed led him to a pitiful sight. Right above a creek, a small pig had its hind foot caught in the wire. It was frantic to get out of its predicament, squirming and writhing like a beached eel. 

"Ah shit, hang on. Don't bite me or I swear you're bacon." Robbie knelt next to it and tried to hold its foot still. He got one loop around its hoof and the rest was easy after that. The pig left off its pained squealing as soon as he finished and started grunting, happily nosing into the mud. There was something oddly familiar about this pig; didn't Mabel have one as a pet? 

The pig turned to put nose prints of cool mud all over its hind leg, especially where the wire had left red welts in the flesh. Robbie watched, surprised a pig could be that intelligent. Then again, he'd heard they were supposed to be smarter than dogs or something.

He shrugged and looked at the area of fence where tin cans, cookie cutters, spurs and other odd assortments of metal were tied to the wire. It had made all kinds of noise when the pig had struggled. Almost as if . . .

A sharp squeal and the pig suddenly bolted, banging headfirst into Robbie's shin and sending him down into the mud. "Ow! You stupid swine, what is your problem!?" He yelled, trying to find traction in the slippery muck. But the pig was already running away fast, disappearing into the undergrowth. 

Grumbling, Robbie managed to get to his feet only to feel a cold and dripping hand seize the back of his neck. His throat closed with terror and he swore he felt his heart freeze as rivulets of creek water ran down the back of his hoodie. 

"Thought I caught a tasty pig, instead I catch a tasty boy. Not bad for old Tommy Rawhead, not bad at all." The voice sounded like wet meat being dragged across tiles.

Robbie whimpered as it started to drag him further down the bank to the water. "Wait," he choked out, digging his heels in. Robbie managed to twist around and nearly screamed at what he came face to face with. It looked like a skinned barricuda with sharp teeth and glowing eyes, and smelled like something long dead and moldy left in the sun.

No, no, no, he hadn't come this far and survived only to be some fish-faced water demon's snack! Robbie thought fast through his terrorized panic.

Dipper had told them about the standard dangers of the woods before they'd gone out, and for once Robbie had paid close attention. But the Pines kid had never covered anything called Tommy Rawhead. 

In the end, it was one of Wendy's Dad's old survival mottos that saved him: It's Always Okay to Fight Dirty.

The creature was dripping wet but its breath smelled like swamp gas. Getting an idea, Robbie fished around in his hoodie pocket until his hand closed around the Zippo lighter he'd taken with him that morning. Mostly because it had looked cool; he could only pray the ancient thing worked. "Uh, y-you must be pretty bored out here, w-waiting for food to just come along. I could show you a magic trick instead?"

"Mmm. Dinner and a show? I will allow it, boy."

The webbed grip released and Robbie could only hope he timed it right, as he waved a hand over his fist, making as if to reveal something in his palm. As the creature exhaled in anticipation, he flicked the concealed lighter on in its face. A whoosh of fire sent the water demon to shrieking, but also engulfed Robbie's hand. 

He yelled in pain but wasted no time to regret not planning that better. As soon as the demon flung itself back into the creek to soothe its burnt scales, Robbie bolted. 

Not long enough after, he could hear the distant enraged snarling of the water demon pursuing him. It frightened him almost beyond endurance and he put on speed, hoping Dipper knew how to get rid of these things. 

Once again, he encountered the damn pig, by tripping over its cowering form in a patch of tall weeds. 

Robbie crashed face-first into the ground and sat up, spitting out a mouthful of dirt and leaves. "Ugh, you are the _worst!_ You better run too; that thing is hungry and pissed!"

The pig gave a low grunting snuffle, as though apologizing, then made a beeline for the direction Robbie was headed. He got up and took his own advice, racing toward the Bunker. As fast as the smaller animal was moving ahead of him, Robbie couldn't help but notice it was beginning to slow down, wheezing in pain.

Apparently its leg was giving it trouble. 

If it was Waddles, Mabel would never forgive him for leaving the pig to be eaten. With an irritated grumble, he scooped the small animal up as he overtook it, and kept charging onward through the brush and grasses. The thing behind him was gaining fast - Robbie could swear he could feel swamp gas caressing the back of his neck. He didn't dare look behind.

As soon as he got to a familiar clearing, Robbie slammed on a button embedded in a tree. Tightening his hold on the squealing pig, he let himself drop into a home run slide, sending dirt and grass flying as his momentum carried him beneath the lifting hunk of camouflaged metal. As soon as he was safely inside, the metal fell back in place, blending in seamlessly with the forest floor.

It was as though the earth swallowed him and the pig whole; at least that's what it seemed like to Rawhead as he screeched and snarled throughout the clearing, frustrated at being cheated out of his prey. 

The chute sent Robbie and his porcine companion all the way down into the main room of the bunker. His sudden appearance startled the room's occupants - Dipper, Mabel and Soos. Wendy and Fiddleford weren't back yet. He felt terrified for both of them, even though he knew Wendy could probably handle that thing way better than he had.

"You okay, dude?" Soos asked, just as Mabel caught sight of the pig in Robbie's arms. 

"WADDLES!" 

Robbie was suddenly treated to a rib-crushing hug. Simultaneously, the pig's flailing little hooves caught him in the face as it frantically wriggled, trying to lick Mabel. 

"Aaagh, enough already! Here, take the pig - I'm out!" 

Robbie escaped certain doom and then scowled at a very amused Dipper. "So, hey - that thing up there calls itself Tommy Rawhead. Do you know anything about it? And why would you _ever_ go into the forest if you did?"

"Tommy Rawhead? That doesn't sound familiar . . ." Dipper frowned, trying to remember. "It wasn't mentioned in the journal, but it could be in other ones. Maybe it's a lesser known cryptid, like the Loveland Frogmen."

"So you don't know how to get rid of it, bro?" Mabel asked, holding Waddles close. 

"It might get bored and run off," Soos reasoned, but Robbie shook his head. 

"I don't think so, it's totally mad at me. Started dragging me away to eat my face off, but I torched the sucker with its own swamp breath." The others looked at him with mild skepticism, until he sheepishly held up his burnt hand. "And also myself."

"Oh, ouch," Dipper winced. 

"Dude, first scar of major battle!" Soos congratulated him, pulling the first aid kit down from a shelf. "Bet it hurts a whole lot."

"Yeah. It doesn't feel so great." The skin was already peeling a little from reddened flesh. Soos gently poured water over it into the sink, which helped relieve some of the pain. Robbie felt arms wrap around his middle tightly and looked down to see the top of Mabel's head. 

"Did that Rawhead thing have Waddles?" She asked, voice muffled in his hoodie. 

"Nah, he was just stuck in a fence when it was nearby. I think he hurt his leg a bit, but he should be okay."

Mabel hugged him tighter. "If you hadn't gone out today, or in that direction . . ." Her voice wobbled suspiciously.

"Aw man, come on, don't cry. He would've been fine. Even with a busted leg, he totally outran me," Robbie lied. 

"You fat fibber," Mabel retorted fondly. "Thank you. This is the best almost-birthday present ever."

Robbie smiled at her, feeling sort of bad. The twins birthday was coming up pretty soon, in a matter of days now. Not dying was the best anyone could come up with as a present, and that was lame.

A loud thudding crash from above made everyone stare at the ceiling. It was followed by the sound of claws tearing into metal and enraged screeching. 

"Wow. Anyone else quite suddenly gotta go the bathroom?" Soos asked, eyes wide.

"Let's get a look at this thing." Dipper turned on the periscope and turned it around to try to get a look at the creature. The image came up on a monitor for all of them to see. It was trying to dig down, peeling skin and blisters all over its face and arms. "Whoa, you did a number on it!"

"Yeah, I'd almost feel bad if it hadn't tried to eat me and Mabel's pig," Robbie muttered. His own hand hurt like hell, even as Soos carefully coated it with salve and clean gauze. 

The creature saw the periscope movement and charged at it, filling up the monitor with gnashing teeth and horrible glowing eyes. 

"We have to do something to get it to leave, before Wendy and Mr. McGucket come back," Mabel worried. "Cause I don't think it'll accept burn gel and a friendship bracelet as an apology!" 

"Maybe we could lure that Arm-Head thing over to eat it?" Soos volunteered.

"No way, they'd probably team up!" Robbie protested. 

The creature gave up trying to dig down and peered into the periscope, tilting its head too far in an unnerving caricature of curiosity. 

"More of you down there? I can smell and hear you," it said, in its horrible voice. "Give me the dark-haired boy, he that burnt me, and I'll leave you all in peace. Let me skin him, let me shatter his femurs," it made a horrid slurping noise. "Let me suck out his marrow, pull out his veins! Throw him to me so I may eat his intestines by inches, so the rest of you may watch, live, and learn . . ."

Everyone turned to glance at Robbie, who was nearly hyperventilating in abject terror, before turning back to the monitor.

"Dude," Soos admonished the creature. "I get that you eat people and all, but that's called _over-sharing._ "

"We aren't giving you Robbie or anybody else, you slobbering guppy-face, so get wrecked!" Mabel yelled back. Waddles squealed angrily in agreement, stomping his hooves. 

"Yeah! There's no way you can get to any of us, unless you can claw through titanium, so you might as well just give up!" Dipper shouted defiantly.

Robbie breathed out shakily, feeling a swell of gratitude for his companions. 

Then a familiar voice out of the periscope's range froze everyone with horror. "Is that you, Fiddleford? Hey, you aren't going to believe this!" Wendy called.

"WENDY, RUN!" Robbie shouted at the top of his lungs. He was instantly joined by the others, all trying to warn her of the immediate danger. They could only pray she could hear it.

"GET OUT OF HERE!!!" Dipper screamed desperately.

"Fine, _okay,_ you can have me, just _don't--_ ", Robbie was begging the creature at the same time. Dipper made out his words and broke off for a moment to stare at him.

It was too late for that offer now; Rawhead gave them all a cruel grin and shrieked, charging at someone out of sight. 

Instead of their friend's screams, there was a loud bang. Chunks of green flesh suddenly flew past, some of it spattering the lens with inky blood. 

"What the heck was that thing?" Wendy could be heard asking. Everyone moaned in relief. 

"I'm gonna faint, dudes," Soos announced. Always true to his word, he flumped onto the ground.

"Eh, it's just a whole buncha slime now," gruffed one familiar voice. 

"That was some form of gaseous water demon. A Rawhead," said another. "I've never actually seen one before. I suspected they were just an old English myth."

The above-ground door to the bunker lifted, letting in Wendy and two other figures. Dipper and Mabel ran to them without hesitation.

"GRUNKLES!" Mabel yelled and the Pines brothers knelt to scoop them up. "We were so worried!"

"YOU were worried?! I about had a heart attack!" Stanley complained, lifting her up high and then hugging her. "What was I gonna tell your parents, huh?"

"Great-Uncle Ford, how'd you get changed back from a statue?" Dipper laughed, unable to believe his eyes.

"Bill got bored and tried to torture information out of me. Then he got distracted for a while by Gideon, and whatever you and your friends were doing. Not sure what all happened out there by the ridge, but it was enough time for Stanley to find me and bust me out."

Robbie swallowed, feeling ill. He could easily tell Ford what Bill had been distracted with. 

"Hey," Wendy greeted him, coming over to give him a hug. He relaxed into the embrace and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, letting soft red strands brush across his skin. She must have known he had needed this.

"Well hi y'all, what the riptootin' heck did I miss?" Fiddleford called from the top of the stairs. He was met with a chorus of relieved yells. Stanford turned in surprise and actually hugged him. 

As the two reunited, Stanley pried off Soos' bear hug, and looked at Robbie and Wendy. 

"So you two made it so far, huh? We gotta ask everyone this - have you or anyone you know made any past deals with our friend Bill Cipher?"

Stanford gave Fiddleford another fond clap on the shoulder, and turned all his focus onto the teens. "It's important we know of every encounter that anyone's had with this demon. Even if it wasn't a deal and no matter how brief. It may very well be the key to defeating him."

Robbie was tense. Wendy pulled back from him a little, but still kept her hands on his shoulders. "Bill hasn't spoken to me. I don't think he'd like what I have to say." Her hand squeezed Robbie's arm, protectively, and her expression coaxed him to answer the older man's question.

The teenager didn't want to, but at his friend's comforting gaze, he gave in. "He's called me 'Stitches' for like, years," he reluctantly volunteered. "I made a deal with him when I was six."

Stanford's eyes widened. "You've known him for _that long_?!"

"What the what?" Mabel asked, stunned. "I didn't know Bill would pick on a six year old!" she fumed, and Robbie felt a little comforted to know she was mad on his behalf rather than at him.

"I want to hear everything of course, but we're going to need to get to the Mystery Shack. It has a much better shield from Cipher than this place does. Wear these around your wrists." Stanford handed everyone a bracelet woven from strange shimmering hair, that caught every hue of the rainbow in the light. "They'll make you invisible to him."

Stanford gave Robbie a worried look, as though afraid for him. "So you're the broken heart on the wheel," he muttered, glancing over the boy's hoodie. "Do you know where your parents are? We may need to get them to safety."

The pained noise Robbie let out was entirely involuntary. Wendy wrapped a steadying arm around him. "Mr. Pines," she said, voice tight. "His parents . . . didn't make it."

At that, Ford realized his mistake.

"They were dead already," Robbie heard himself explaining. "I wished them back after a car accident, and couldn't . . . " He had just enough sense not to look at Mabel. "I refused to hold up my end of the bargain. So Bill took them and -"

A wave of nausea hit him as images from that memory suddenly replayed. Robbie bolted for the sink and fought against the urge to retch. Dimly, he heard Wendy hurriedly sum things up for him. He turned on the water in order to splash his face. Also to drown out the words.

Apparently he couldn't actually talk about their death yet. Everything before that was fine, even how badly the car accident had mutilated them - maybe because then it hadn't been so permanent. 

He drank some of the water, and turned the faucet off. Voices were still talking, overlapping in muted tones. His vision was hazy around the edges. Robbie felt small and pathetic for a minute before he straightened up and tried to find the same comfortable emptiness he'd had before - the one that allowed him to function better than this.

"Hey, Robbie?"

He glanced over and saw Dipper looking up at him, looking nervous. "Yeah?" Robbie asked tensely. 

"When the Rawhead was about to attack Wendy, y-you were offering yourself instead."

It wasn't what he'd expected and Robbie found himself flinching as he realized he'd meant it. "Well, if he got anybody, it shouldn't have been any of you. Why do you ask anyway?" He didn't have the heart to sound grouchy.

"Because I'm - we're all worried about you."

"Why? I'm fine. Bad stuff happened to my parents. Not me." Robbie looked away from him, looking at Wendy, who was talking in low tones to Stanford. So that he didn't have to. He loved her, but no longer in the foolish way he had before. He loved her because she was his friend. "I couldn't protect them."

"You shouldn't blame yourself for that, okay? Please don't try to sacrifice yourself again." It wasn't the words that drew back Robbie's attention, but the way Dipper's voice wavered when he said them. The twelve year old actually looked on the verge of tears. "I mean it. Mabel would be heartbroken, and I don't think I'd be okay either."

He wasn't sure what to do, other than nod. It seemed enough for Dipper, and his shoulders relaxed as though a weight had been lifted from them. Though he didn't leave, looking like he had something else to say.

"Mabel told me she thinks that all of this is her fault," the boy finally admitted. Robbie stared at Dipper, then looked over at the Pines girl, who was giggling as Waddles chased her in little circles. 

"What? How could it be?"

"Bill tricked her into a deal, pretending to be someone else. He broke the Rift between his world and ours."

"It's not her fault! Bill's . . . He's . . . He knows exactly what he's doing, like all the time. He played me like an acoustic guitar," Robbie scowled, crossing his arms. "It's not Mabel's fault at all, and I'll fight anyone who says it is." 

It took him a moment to realize his logic had just exonerated himself as well. Robbie looked surprised and then a little sheepish.

Dipper offered him a warm smile and friendly punch to the arm. 

"Thanks," Robbie muttered. "I'll . . . stop throwing myself under the bus, I guess."

Stanford made them stay close to each other in pairs for the short journey. It wasn't too far to the Shack at least - and the worst they encountered was Gompers, who narrowly avoided trampling McGucket and Soos. The unicorn hair hid them from a number of things aside from Bill Cipher.

Robbie saw the others that had found their way to the shack, non-humans as well as familiar faces. Detective Blubbs was sitting dejectedly in a corner, without his partner. A few gnomes were doing handstands, trying to cheer him up, but all they could coax out of him was a wan smile. Pacifica was nestled against the side of a unicorn, absently braiding pieces of glowing rainbow hair. She looked distraught and Robbie wondered with a pang where her parents were. 

He didn't have time to look for who else was here; Stanford immediately steered him to the kitchen. "Out," he ordered a Minotaur and a couple of pixies. They left grumbling, and Ford shut the door to the crowded living room.

"Okay," he said, and pulled out a chair for Robbie, gesturing for him to sit. The teen felt himself shaking, but he obeyed. Stanford noticed his unease and looked awkward for a moment. "I'm sorry if I come off rather brusque. Would you like anything to drink or eat?"

Robbie was parched from running for his life. He nodded, eyeing the six pack of grape soda on the counter. Stanford got him and himself one, then sat across from him. "Tell me what you can when you're ready."

His tone was gentle, but there was an underlying urgency that told Robbie he had to do this. It was going to suck, and part of him was even a little worried of what might happen to Bill if he told this man everything. Robbie thought about his parents, and firmly pushed that sentiment down. 

He told Stanford everything.


End file.
